344 



NA TURE 



\_Ang. 27, 1874 



that it is being continually developed de ncroo by surrounding 

 circumstances. Is this not a sufficient stimulus for increased 

 sanitary l^islalion ? 



The Governor of Minnesota has called on the general Go- 

 vernment for aid, as, owing to the ravages of grasshoppers for two 

 years past, many thousands are suffering for want of food. The 

 American naturaUsts suggest tliat the grasshopper should be 

 eaten, just as it is in portions of Africa and Western Asia. 



The new Minister of Public Instruction visited the Observa- 

 tory of Paris last week, and expressed his satisfaction to M. 

 Leverrier with what he had seen and with tlie explanations 

 which had been given to him. 



The ownership of the grounds between the old Paris Obser 

 vatory Gardens and the Boulevard Arago, more than two acres' 

 has been disputed between the Government and the city of Paris 

 The right of the city was acknowledged, but the Municipa 

 Council have let it to the Observatory for the nominal rent o 

 20 francs a year. On these grounds a magnetic service is to 

 be established. 



Two interesting b.-illoon ascents have taken place in America 

 lately, one at New York by Prof. Donaldson, with his large 

 Transatlantic balloon, and a batch of reporters from several in- 

 fluential papers at New York. The trip, including four landings, 

 lasted more than twenty-four hours, and ended in the vicinity of 

 Saratoga, the balloon having run a distance of about eighty 

 miles. A few daysafterwards Prof. Wyse executed an ascent in 

 Canada, in order to ascertain if a western current blows in the 

 upper parts of the atmosphere when the lower stream of air is 

 running in another direction. At a moderate height the 

 western current was met with. Prof. Donaldson contends that it 

 is a consequence of the revolution of the earth, and can be 

 trusted to for crossing the Atlantic from America to Europe. 

 But can these partial experiments be really relied upon ? That 

 remams to be demonstrated. 



One of the veiy few scientific members of the Versailles 

 Assembly has departed. M. Fland, an engineer, died at Dinan, 

 where he was appointed Mayor seventeen years .ago. He had an 

 engine manufactory at Brest, and was appointed by contract the 

 constructor of the celebrated Giffard injector. M. Fland was 

 origmally a pupil of the Ecole des Arts et Metiers d' Angers. 



Mr. Thomas Muir, M.A., F.R.S.E., Assistant Professor of 

 Mathematics in the University of Glasgow, and author of some 

 original investigations in Mathematics, has been appointed suc- 

 cessor to Dr. Bryce in the Mathematical Mastership of the High 

 School of Glasgow. 



Mr. Charles Moore, the Garden stales, who recently brought 

 a good many valuable and veiy novel plants to this country from 

 the South Sea Islands and Australia, returns to Sydney by the 

 next mail, having visited many of the best botanic gardens and 

 nurseries in Europe, and selected an immense collection of 

 valuable and rare plants for the Sydney Botanic Garden, which 

 is said to be one of the most beautiful in the world. 



We learn from Iron that the Academy of Sciences of Berlin 

 offers a prize of 200 dels., payable in July 1876, for the best 

 essay recording experiments as to whether changes in the hardness 

 and friability of steel are due to chemical or physical causes, or 

 to both. Papers in German, Latin, English, or French, are to 

 be sent in before March 1876. 



The Report of the Council of the Leicester Literary and Pliiio- 

 sophical Society, presented at the annual meeting of June 15 la^t, 

 is on the whole very gratifying. The Society contains a large 

 number of members, and is working in the right direction in 

 trying to interest not only the members, but the inhabitants of 

 Leicester generally, in science as well as literature. During last 



winter a very judiciously planned course of lectures was delivered 

 in connection with the Society, which wa5 fairly attended, and 

 would, we believe, have been still better attended, had there been 

 no free seats. The Society is divided into sections, three of which 

 are scientific — (i) Meteorology and General Physics, (2) Geology 

 and PaL-Eontology, (3) Natural History. Satisfactory reports 

 are given in Nos. I and 3, the latter having set itself to the 

 collection of statistics of the natural history of the county, and 

 the former, among other things, to a regular series of meteor- 

 ological observations. We hope the Leicester Society will perse- 

 vere in its work. 



We have received as No. I of the "Proceedings of the Chester 

 Society of Natural Science," a very excellent list (with remarks) 

 of birds observed in Werral, Cheshire, by J. F. Brockholes. The 

 list contains 168 species. 



The Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the Pea- 

 body Museum of American Archceology and Ethnology 

 (Harvard) contains some account of the valuable series of objects 

 connected with South American and Pacific archa.'ology and 

 ethnology, which the late Prof. Agassiz acquired during his 

 voyage in the Ilasslcr in 1871-2, and which have been trans- 

 ferred to the Peabody Museum. The collection is very valuable 

 and comprehensive ; there are 330 specimens of Peiuvian skulls 

 alone. The Report contains a very ingenious paper, apparently 

 by Mr. J. Wyman, the Curator, On the human remains in the 

 shell heaps of tlie St. John's River, East Florida, in which the 

 author argues, from the condition of the bones and other cir- 

 cumstances, that the Floridan aborigines were in all probability 

 cannibals. 



One of the many valuable results of the work of the U.S. 

 Geological Survey of the Territories, is a " Synopsis of the Flora 

 of Colorado," by T. C. Porter and J. M. Coulter. This work is 

 intended to be a type of a series of handbooks of different 

 branches of natural history, to be published from time to time as 

 a part of a series of "Miscellaneous Publications " for the use of 

 students. No. 3 of the series is nearly ready, and has been 

 prepared by the eminent ornithologist, Dr. E. Coues. It will 

 form an octavo volume of several hundred pages, bringing the 

 whole subject of western ornithology up to date. 



A PAPER by Dr. H. D. Schmidt, of New Orlenns, U.S.A., 

 On the construction of the dark or double-bordered nerve-fibre, 

 occupies a large part of the last number of the Microscopic 

 yonnta/, and is illustrated by three plates. In the same number 

 is the first instalment of a communication by Rev. S. J. Brakey 

 on the theory of immersion. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during 

 the past week include two Chukar Partridges {Cacaiis chukar) 

 from N. W. India, presented by the Hon. Justice Jackson ; four 

 Sandwich Terns ( Slcrna cantiaca), four Avocets (J\cc:ii-'iros/ra 

 avocella), ICuropean, purchased ; a Common Crowned Pigeon 

 {Gotira coronalci), two Bi'onze-winged Pigeons {Pliaps cludcoptcra), 

 hatched in the Gardens ; a Black-eared Marmoset (Ilapalc peni- 

 cillald) from Brazil ; and two Suricates (Sitricala zcnik) from 

 South America, deposited. 



FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROGRESS 

 OF SCIENCE 



THE Lille Session was opened on Aug. 20 by the 

 address of M. Wurtz, of which you have received 

 a copy, and which has been pubhshed in all the French 

 papers. The Dibats, by an extraordinary access of zeal, 

 published it a day before it was delivered ! 



On Friday Colonel Laussedat read at a general session 

 a report on the results of the last session. 



